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by TheSkyeIsFalling



Series: Random Drabbles [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bilingual Keith (Voltron), Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bilingual Shiro (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Japanese, Japanese Shiro (Voltron), M/M, Panic Attacks, child keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 01:13:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21227339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSkyeIsFalling/pseuds/TheSkyeIsFalling
Summary: Keith learned that he had a fascination with languages when he finds out that Shiro's bilingual and speaks Japanese, so he asks him to teach him. Years later, a minor slip up causes a panic attack with the best outcome.





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**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE READ:
> 
> I am not bilingual or anything, I'm monolingual. I'm Canadian and only speak/read/write in English. So please, if any of you are fluent in Japanese please correct me. However, I have been trying off an on again for a few months to learn Japanese and have textbooks and dictionaries I used. DO NOT USE GOOGLE TRANSLATE. Other then that, please enjoy, this came to me last night while I was trying to fall asleep.

"Who were you talking to?" Keith stepped out onto the roof sitting next to Shiro.

"Hmmm, I was talking to my Grandfather. I was finally confirmed for the Kerberos mission so I was telling him about it." He carefully slid his phone into his pocket and leaned back on his hands.

Keith was quiet for a minute watching the setting sun, finally having the courage to ask he turned to Shiro, "Does your Grandfather not speak English?"

Shiro had expected the question, still, he dropped his head with a laugh. "He can but it's not his first language, he's more comfortable speaking Japanese, so, that's what we use when we talk."

Keith seemed to light up at this, eyes going wide, "You can speak Japanese? Did you grow up in Japan? Which one is your first language, Japanese or English?" He started leaning forward subconsciously.

Shiro sighed, Keith truly had changed in the few years they've known each other, he swung his leg up off the edge turning to face Keith head-on. "My parents moved here when I was a baby, I did spend holidays in Japan though. To answer which one is my first is a bit harder, I grew up around both and learned them at the same time, though I am better at English than Japanese."

"Can you teach me?"

"You wanna learn Japanese?" Now that caught him off guard. Keith nodded so vigorously Shiro was worried he was gonna break his neck. "It's not that easy."

"So, it sounds cool. Plus you're uh, like a brother to me, it would be nice to learn more about your family and stuff." Keith dropped his head, face slowly turning red with embarrassment.

Shiro felt like he could cry, "You see me as your brother? Keith, of course I'll teach you now come here." Reaching forward he grabbed Keith by the shoulders pulling him into a tight hug.

"Ugh, I regret saying anything, you're being mushy." Despite complaining he still hugged back, Shiro could see the slight curve of a smile out of the corner of his eye. Keith didn't usually hug people so Shiro took what he could get before letting him go.

"You really wanna learn Japanese? I should still have some textbooks, I can give them to you in the morning."

"Wait, there's textbooks for Japanese?" Keith fell back with a groan, he may be smart but he was still a kid.

Shiro shook his head with a laugh. "Sorry, kiddo."

"Ew don't call me kiddo, you not _ that _much older than me." Keith scrunched up his face with disgust, carefully sitting back up to watch the last of the sunset. "What's the first thing to learn?"

"You might not want to learn it after, I told you it's not easy."

"Shiro."

"Okay, okay." He raised his hands up in surrender. "Japanese doesn't have an alphabet like English does, and there are three writing systems to know. Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, we'll focus on Kanji last though."

"This doesn't sound as fun as I thought it would be. When will I be able to say things like 'Hi' or 'this class sucks'. Oh, what about that thing you always say to Adam, what is it? A...eye-shee...a-shit-e-"

Shiro went red, "愛してる(aishiteru), you heard that?"

Keith looked at him confused. "Why, what does it mean?" Shiro buried his face in his hands and mumbled. "What?"

"It means 'I love you'."

"Oh"

~~~~~

"愛してる!"

"What?" Lance dropped his stance, cocking his head to the side he looked at Keith confused.

He hadn't even realized it came out, hadn't thought about that with Shiro since it happened. How had he even remembered that? Ya, he ended up learning Japanese but it's not like he went around confessing his love to people, that was the only time he'd actually heard it.

And now, here he was, two years later training with Lance early in the morning. Of all the times to realize he was in love with his friend and the first thing he does is blurt it out in a different language. "Uh, nothing. Sorry just remembered something Shiro taught me, doesn't matter." Hopefully, he wasn't as red as he felt, if he was he could just blame the exertion.

"Shiro speaks Japanese?" 

Keith really didn't wanna have this conversation. "Ya, you can ask him about it later if you want. Come on, sword up, we still gotta work on your stance."

"My stance is perfect thank you very much." In hopes of changing the subject, Keith kicked Lance's leg out from under him to prove his point. "Fuck you too man."

Luckily that's all it took, and they spent the rest of the morning in the training deck. Keith completely forgetting about the slip-up. It wasn't until lunchtime when Lance and Shiro were in the same room did he panic.

"Oh hey Shiro, Keith mentioned you can speak Japanese." Keith froze, colour draining from his face.

"He did?" Shiro turned to look at Keith behind Lance, seeing his expression he grinned. Asshole. "Ya, my family's from Japan so I grew up with the language."

"Oh my god this is awesome, I thought I was the only bilingual one here, eh-"He turned to look at Allura and Coran, "Only bilingual human here."

Shiro and Keith shared a look before looking back at Lance, Keith got worried that Lance understood what he'd said earlier. "You're bilingual?" Please don't be Japanese, please don't be Japanese.

Lance turned to look at him, then back to Shiro. "Wait you guys didn't know? Dude English is my second language, I had like, a _ really _ thick accent when I first started at the Garrison. I grew up speaking Spanish."

"That, actually explains a lot." Shiro burst out laughing. "I've run into you in the middle of the night, sometimes early in the morning, and you're still like half asleep and I could _ never _ make out what you were saying. Good to know I wasn't just mishearing you, you were just speaking a different language."

Keith could feel the question on the tip of his tongue, this was like the night with Shiro all over again. He wanted to ask Lance to teach him. Could he? They were in space though, they didn't have access to dictionaries and textbooks.

"Anyways, I brought it up cause I wanted to know if you could translate something for me." Oh no.

"Sure Lance, what is it you wanna say?" Shiro had calmed down, crossing his arms over his chest he leaned against the kitchen table.

"Actually it's not something I wanna translate _ into _Japanese, it something I wanna translate into English."

"Oh, uh, well I can do my best. Just try your best at pronouncing it."

"愛してる。"

"He means 哀愁た漂う(aishutadayou), I remembered it during training this morning." Keith blurted, he gave Shiro a pleading look.

Shiro looked at Lance, surprised by his pronunciation, then at Keith even more surprised.

"キース、そうですか？ (Kisu, sodesu ka? [Keith, is that so?])"

Keith knew Shiro didn't believe him, "あのう...はい? (anou...hai?[well...yes?])"

"No, that's not what you said. I know I remembered it right, right?" Lance turned back to Shiro.

"Well, 哀愁た漂う translates to sorrowful. With the kinda banter you guys usually have when training I wouldn't be surprised if that what he said. However, with your pronunciation I'm more inclined to think he said 愛してる。" 

Shiro started smirking, standing straight he started making his way for the door, grabbing Allura and Coran as he went. Neither one said anything, giving him a weird look as they went along with him. "I think the expression in Spanish is 'te amo'." And with that, the door shut behind them.

"Fuck."

Lance whirled around so fast, Keith wouldn't be surprised if he'd given himself whiplash. "What? You...I...what?" Lance shut his mouth, staring wide-eyed at Keith.

He felt like dying, he wanted the ground and swallow him up. Not only did he have to realize he was in love with Lance, but have Lance find out and get embarrassed by his brother about it all in the same day. "Uh..."

At the sound of Keith's voice, Lance calmed down, squeezing his eyes closed for a second he sighed. When he opened them again he gave Keith a very blank, but very serious, look. "Did you mean it?"

"Did I...uh?"

Lance took a step towards him. "Yes or no Kogane, did you mean it?"

Lance took another step towards him, Keith tried to step back but ended up running into the counter. He was trapped. "I...yes?" Tears were starting to sting the corner of his eyes, fuck, he wasn't going to cry in front of Lance. He tried to look away, he wanted Lance to step back.

"Keith," Lance spoke softly, he was so fucking close. Carefully he brought his hands up, placing them on Keith's arms just above his elbows. Keith gasped at the contact, trying to pull himself in tighter. "Keith, can you look at me?"

Fuck, he hated this. He could feel himself start to shake, slowly he wrapped his arms around his stomach but Lance still held on. Nodding slightly, he tilted his head up just enough so that he could look at Lance's face through his bangs.

"I want you to take a deep breath, ok?" Keith nodded again, it was shaky, nearly choking on the exhale. Focusing on his face, Keith could see a blush dusting across Lance's face, his eyebrows pinched in concern, the slight discolouration of freckles spattered across his nose. "Keith, can...can I kiss you?"

Lance wanted to kiss him.

Keith hadn't even fully nodded when he felt Lance press against his lips, gasping when Lance pulled back to better fit against him. He could feel Lance let go of his arm, bringing it up to carefully rest his cheek, thumb slowly caressing it as he wiped away a stray tear.

He brought his own hands up to Lance's sides, fisting the fabric of his shirt, holding him tightly against him. The kiss was slow and wet and oh so sweet, the smell of Lance's face creams and shampoo filled his nose when he breathed. He was intoxicating.

Lance slowly pulled back, teeth grazing against Keith's bottom lip causing him to let out a moan, mind swimming from the sensation. "Te amo." Lances breath hot against his cheek as he whispered.

"愛してる。"


End file.
